The present invention relates to radio frequency (RF) ablation of tissue and in particular to an apparatus using ablation to control bleeding during the resection of a portion of an organ.
The liver is a common site for both primary and metastatic cancer. Surgical resection (hepatectomy) is currently the preferred treatment for liver cancer. During resection, the surgeon typically removes a lobe of the liver, a time consuming procedure where the surgeon must cut through tissue while avoiding or closing large blood vessels. Blood loss during this procedure can adversely affect patient survival, increase hospital stay, and increase complication rates.
Some studies have investigated the use of radio RF ablation or microwave (MW) ablation to coagulate tissue before resection. Henceforth, both RF and MW ablation will be referred to collectively as RF ablation.
In RF ablation, an electrode is inserted into the tissue and current passing from the electrode through the patient to a large area ground pad on the patient's skin coagulates the tissue near the electrode through resistive heating, sealing it against blood flow. In order to ablate the necessary area of tissue, the electrode is removed and reapplied at a series of locations along the tissue slice. The time required for this procedure is generally too long for clinic practice.